The blistering, 37-page sentencing memorandum, accompanied by financial records and copies of checks, for the first time pinpointed the number of "Healthy Holly" children's books Pugh sold ‐ and re-sold. It outlined her efforts to conceal her dealings, including lying to FBI agents who came to her house to seize her cellphone.
It also raised further questions regarding the roles of city Comptroller Joan Pratt, who co-owned a business with Pugh that prosecutors say was used to launder an illegal campaign contribution and which filed a false tax return, and of a major city contractor who wrote out a check to that business in addition to buying Pugh's books.
"The chronology of events since 2011, comprising Pugh's seven-year scheme to defraud, multiple years of tax evasion, election fraud, and attempted cover-ups, including brazen lies to the public, clearly establishes the deliberateness with which she pursued financial and political gain without a second thought about how it was harming the public's trust," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin J. Clarke and Leo J. Wise.
"It was not rash behavior," they wrote. "Rather, it was a recurring pattern of well-executed steps that built on each other, becoming more audacious and complex leading up to the mayoral election."
Pugh, 69, was elected mayor in 2016. The Democrat resigned in May after federal agents raided her City Hall office and her houses.
She reached a plea agreement in November with prosecutors and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27 by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow in Baltimore.
Prosecutors told the judge that Pugh knowingly sought to defraud purchasers of her Healthy Holly books, reap financial and political benefits, and pay little or no taxes. They accused her of compounding an array of problems already facing the city and of feigning an interest in addressing childhood obesity with the books on healthy lifestyles for kids.
At one point they referred to her as a "scammer," and said the children's books were intended to woo voters and bolster her campaign coffers. Purchasers told investigators they felt the books advanced the goals of their community outreach programs.
Yet, "many of the purchasers acknowledged that they probably would not have purchased the books if Pugh had not been the author," prosecutors said.